In praise of Ideology

It seems that having an ideological point of view is a ‘bad’ thing these days [ unless, of course, the person’s ideological point of view supports your own J ].

To me, someone with an ideologically slanted argument is the same thing as someone expressing their personal vision as to how they wish to live their life and how they wish to be treated by others in society.

‘Vision’ seems to be a good thing in business circles. A leader, of course,  cannot lead successfully and convince others to follow their vision unless it hangs together in a meaningful way for the followers .

I have a vision for my life and this vision has been shaped by my life experiences, lots of reading, and many instances where I responded with angry or indignant reactions to people who have tried to interfer with my freedom to choose how to make my own way in life.

I consider myself a strong, self-reliant and self-made man who owes less to others for my success than I do to my own efforts and choices. Maybe I have been more fortunate than others in what life has provided me in terms of talent and circumstances … and maybe not. 

Some people may point their finger at me and claim that I "had it easy"  because I was “dealt better cards” at birth. But if this is true, how do you explain successful lives of Stephen Hawking or Oprah Winfrey?

None of us can change our life endowments — we can only exploit them to our advantage through effort and choice. Given this truth, we are all equal in our ability to make prudent choices and apply our best efforts towards  every opportunity and obstacle that life chooses to throw at us.

For someone to hold an ideological point of view, it means that life has challenged them in ways that have elicited this emotional and intellectual response in them. The fact that they can articulate their ideology  -  whether religious, philosophical  or political – is to be respected because it summates their  collection of efforts and choices in a way that is nothing less than the fingerprint of their soul and the vision for which their bell tolls.